Judge John G. Roberts Jr.’s 4-year-old son, Jack, can’t keep still Tuesday at the White House as President Bush announces his nomination of the federal jurist to the U.S. Supreme Court. At right is Roberts’s wife, Jane, and his daughter, Josie, 5.

Coloradans across the political spectrum Tuesday applauded the credentials of U.S. Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr., but his slender public judicial record gave pause to some legal experts and liberal interests.

“I think his credentials are hard to argue with,” said Alan Chen, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Denver School of Law. “He is quite a good lawyer. There is not likely to be much challenge to his competence or his experience. If any fight comes up, it will be over his philosophical stuff.

“But I don’t think it is clear what his philosophy is or will be.”

Representatives of the Sierra Club, abortion-rights supporters, and civil rights and other groups declined comment on the nomination until they can study decisions by Roberts during his two years on the District of Columbia federal appeals court.

Bill Vandenberg of the Colorado Coalition for Fair Justice, which represents 20 state conservation, health care and civil rights interests, dryly noted that Roberts is hardly a risky choice for the position held by the first female Supreme Court justice.

“It seems that this nomination doesn’t necessarily add to the diversity of the Supreme Court, and that’s a shame,” he said. “There’s a really limited public record, which makes him a pretty coy pick for a nominee. I think it’s fair to say that many or most prior nominees have a longer history of a public record.”

At 50, Roberts is relatively young for the post but experienced beyond his years, said Jean Dubofsky, the first woman named to the Colorado Supreme Court. She said she consulted with Roberts before successfully challenging Colorado’s anti- gay-rights Amendment 2 before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1995.

“He is qualified because of his experience and background, the kind of law he has practiced,” she said.

“He has not been an academic, but he has been an appellate lawyer and someone who knows a great deal about government from the inside,” she said.

If Roberts is confirmed, Dubofsky predicted that he could bring a dramatic change to the opinions of the court – replacing Sandra Day O’Connor’s more moderate philosophy with a conservative stance similar to that of Chief Justice William Rehn quist, who consistently votes against affirmative action, gay rights and women’s rights. Roberts is a former Rehnquist law clerk and a member of the Federalist Society, which calls itself a conservative and libertarian group.

“I would really expect his views would be closer to Rehn quist’s than O’Connor’s,” the former Colorado justice said.

Michael Huttner, an adjunct professor at the University of Denver College of Law and executive director of Progress- Now.org, said he believes many groups will fight Roberts’ nomination.

As a deputy solicitor general, Roberts wrote a brief in 1991 for President George H.W. Bush’s administration arguing that Roe vs. Wade should be overruled. In a case involving the separation of church and state, Roberts urged the Supreme Court to rule that public schools can officially sponsor prayer at graduation ceremonies, Huttner said.

“This is the critical fight for progressives and folks concerned about our judicial philosophy and where our highest court should be taking us,” Huttner said.

Former Colorado Congressman Bob Schaffer parried that Roberts’ support for states’ rights is “well-suited to Western issues.”

“For example, our rigid water law depends on judges who interpret rather than invent when it comes to interstate compacts and the tenuous relationship between federal and state law,” he said. “Colorado tends to lose whenever we have judges evaluating these disagreements. They have a tendency to read answers into laws that are otherwise straightforward.”

Colorado Sierra Club representative Adriana Raudzens said the organization is reviewing Roberts’ judicial record on the environment but expressed concern about Roberts’ stance on individual rights.

While applauding Roberts’ intelligence and experience, U.S. District Senior Judge John Kane of Denver said there are some key concerns that need to be answered.

“The question is, Does he have heart? Does he have a sense of the scope of jurisprudence?” asked Kane, once considered a possible nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“As I understand his record, he’s never been in a trial himself. He’s spent most of his time in the solicitor general’s office, an elite group that handles Supreme Court litigations. Has he ever sat down in a stinking jail cell and talked to someone about rights under those circumstances?”

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